FOR years, van makers have fought for fleet business on the traditional battlegrounds of price, payload and range. Now a new front is opening up: predictive maintenance. As connected vehicle technology becomes more prevalent and more sophisticated, manufacturers are increasingly realising the vast amounts of data generated by their vans can be harnessed not just to improve vehicle performance, but to win fleet contracts through the lower costs of reduced downtime thanks to predictive maintenance. In an increasingly competitive market, thanks to new Chinese entrants arriving and established brands under pressure from the ZEV Mandate, uptime is becoming one of the most valuable sales tools in the commercial vehicle sector. Ford first with use of connected data Ford, the UK’s long-time van market leader and therefore, arguably, the most to lose, is already using connected vehicle health data to get ahead. Speaking to Broker News at the CV Show this month, Alex Gallagher, Ford Pro’s Sales Director, said the company’s “proactive uptime” service uses data modelling to monitor vehicle health and identify potential issues before they lead to a breakdown. He said: “When we talk to fleets, the biggest cost to their business is downtime. By far. A vehicle off the road is obviously affecting their business. They’re not doing business, they’re not productive and they’re losing money. “We use connected vehicle health data and data modelling to look at that and see if a vehicle is at any risk of a downtime event, if so we can bring them in.” Ford claims customers using the service can cut downtime by up to 50%. It is currently offering a six-month free trial to fleet customers before moving to a £9 per month per van paid for subscription model. The importance of uptime is also driving strategy at Renault. Renault UK